Experimental Ebola Drug Given to American Aid Workers May Have Saved Their Lives.

Two American aid workers infected with Ebola are getting an experimental drug so novel it has never been tested for safety in humans and was only identified as a potential treatment earlier this year, thanks to a longstanding research program by the U.S. government and the military.

The workers, Nancy Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantly, are improving, although it's impossible to know whether the treatment is the reason or they are recovering on their own, as others who have survived Ebola have done. Brantly is being treated at a special isolation unit at Atlanta's Emory University Hospital, and Writebol was expected to be flown there Tuesday in the same specially equipped plane that brought Brantly.

They were infected while working in Liberia, one of four West African nations dealing with the world's largest Ebola outbreak. On Monday, the World Health Organization said the death toll had increased from 729 to 887 deaths in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria, and that more than 1,600 people have been infected.

In a worrisome development, the Nigerian Health Minister said a doctor who had helped treat Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American man who died July 25 days after arriving in Nigeria, has been confirmed to have the deadly disease. Tests are pending for three other people who also treated Sawyer and are showing symptoms.

There is no vaccine or specific treatment for Ebola, but several are under development.

The experimental treatment the U.S. aid workers are getting is called ZMapp and is made by Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc. of San Diego. It is aimed at boosting the immune system's efforts to fight off Ebola and is made from antibodies produced by lab animals exposed to parts of the virus.

In a statement, the company said it was working with LeafBio of San Diego, Defyrus Inc. of Toronto, the U.S. government and the Public Health Agency of Canada on development of the drug, which was identified as a possible treatment in January.

The drug is made in tobacco plants at Kentucky BioProcessing, a subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc., in Owensboro, Kentucky, said spokesman David Howard. The plant "serves like a photocopier," and the drug is extracted from the plant, he said.

Kentucky BioProcessing complied with a request from Emory and the international relief group Samaritan's Purse to provide a limited amount of ZMapp to Emory, he said. Brantly works for the aid group.

The Kentucky company is working "to increase production of ZMapp but that process is going to take several months," Howard said. The drug has been tested in animals and testing in humans is expected to begin later this year.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration must grant permission to use experimental treatments in the United States, but the FDA does not have authority over the use of such a drug in other countries, and the aid workers were first treated in Liberia. An FDA spokeswoman said she could not confirm or deny FDA granting access to any experimental therapy for the aid workers while in the U.S.

Writebol, 59, has been in isolation at her home in Liberia since she was diagnosed last month. She's now walking with assistance and has regained her appetite, said Bruce Johnson, president of SIM USA, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based group that she works for in Africa.

Writebol has received two doses of the experimental drug so far, but Johnson was hesitant to credit the treatment for her improvement.

"Ebola is a tricky virus and one day you can be up and the next day down. One day is not indicative of the outcome," he said. But "we're grateful this medicine was available."

Brantly, 33, also was said to be improving. Besides the experimental dose he got in Liberia, he also received a unit of blood from a 14-year-old boy, an Ebola survivor, who had been under his care. That seems to be aimed at giving Brantly antibodies the boy may have made to the virus.

Samaritan's Purse initiated the events that led to the two workers getting ZMapp, according to a statement Monday by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The Boone, North Carolina-based group contacted U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials in Liberia to discuss various experimental treatments and were referred to an NIH scientist in Liberia familiar with those treatments.

The scientist answered some questions and referred them to the companies but was not officially representing the NIH and had no "official role in procuring, transporting, approving, or administering the experimental products," the statement says.

In the meantime, dozens of African heads of state were in Washington for the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, a three-day gathering hosted by President Barack Obama. U.S. health officials on Monday spoke with Guinean President Alpha Conde and senior officials from Liberia and Sierra Leone about the Ebola outbreak.

The Defense Department has long had a hand in researching infectious diseases, including Ebola. During much of the Cold War period this served two purposes: to keep abreast of diseases that could limit the effectiveness of troops deployed abroad and to be prepared if biological agents were used as weapons.

The U.S. military has no biological weapons program but continues to do research related to infectious diseases as a means of staying current on potential threats to the health of troops. It may also contribute medical expertise as part of interagency efforts in places like Africa where new infectious disease threats arise.

The hospital in Atlanta treating the aid workers has one of the nation's most sophisticated infectious disease units. Patients are sealed off from anyone not in protective gear. Ebola is only spread through direct contact with an infected person's blood or other bodily fluids, not through the air.

The CDC last week told U.S. doctors to ask about foreign travel by patients who come down with Ebola-like symptoms, including fever, headache, vomiting and diarrhea. A spokesman said three people have been tested so far in the U.S. - and all tested negative. Additionally, a New York City hospital on Monday said a man was being tested for Ebola but he likely didn't have it.

Writebol and her husband, David, had been in Liberia since last August, sent there by SIM USA and sponsored by their home congregation at Calvary Church in Charlotte. At the clinic, Nancy Writebol's duties included disinfecting staff entering or leaving the Ebola treatment area.

But now we know why they were brought back...so this drug could be used to see the results on humans. This was the shot in the dark that allowed them to bypass the strict process of the FDA's regulations that still could have been years away.

Sorry @hillofbeans, you made it very clear that these cowards should have been left there to die. However, many of their fellow Americans are so excited about the opportunity to save these heroes. I hope you are on board and praying for a speedy recovery for our fellow countrymen that were out in a very bad part of the world trying to help the less fortunate.

I've seen a lot of back and forth over this one on both sides but now we know the "real why" these two were brought back and put into one of the CDC's top facilities...they had a possible cure to try out for Ebola on two people who couldn't be more willing, and who already understands the disease more than most.

I wasn't against them coming here...the company that makes the drug where it's actually produced is in Owensboro KY not far from here. We had kind of heard rumors that that's what they were going to do and why they brought them back. I'm also in favor of it because if you're going to beat this virus, you have to test for it and I still can't think of any country set up any better than we are at medical science...other than Israel's.

Actually, one of the first none Africans to be diagnosed with the disease recovered without specialized treatment. Now 71 he did a short interview with Lex 18 News, and is semi-retired. They didn't even know what he had at the time. Later tests for the antibodies showed what it was.

Yes, Ebola is nasty! Is it the pandemic threat some fear? Most likely not.

And the best part!It is made from Tobacco. You know that terrible thing that the libs tried for years to force the companies out of business.Love it!Watched a special interview with those hat make it last night on the news.

If your life was on the line with a 50-90% mortality rate...what would you do? Interesting that it is the dreaded and scorned lowly Tobacco leaf with its quick mosaic and genetic growth. Good to know that Cancer treatments might come from the same plant chemical. And why is cancer not treated the same way. Where is the FDA and trials on the Ebola drug?

magnacarta - You say, "with no negative (it think it should be)'effects'". Have you seen the ads for the 'approved drugs' that list 'side effects'? If I had Ebola, and my biggest potential 'side effect' from not taking the drug was death, none of the other 'side effects' would really bother me.:-).

@eyesonu I want these people to get well. i myself got Cancer and had it removed and chemo . I agree with you. The effect however with the Ebola thing is still too early to say it's successful. That's all i meant.

@magnacarta - Glad to hear you beat the big "C". I've got two friends who are currently losing their fights. Having been through it, You know better than most what it is like to deal with a scary disease.

You're also right to say the jury's still out on the success of the treatment. But if I had Ebola, I'd go kiss Ted Cruz's ass if I thought it would help cure me.(Guess I shouldn't announce that to loudly, because Ted will probably tell me it would)

@eyesonu Well i do have side effects from the chemo, kidney problems now. But I'll see how longthat takes me. BTW: You don't need to kiss Ted's ass, you will however have do so to whoever is in charge of HHS, or Health Politburo for future treatments.

@magnacarta - Nawwwww. Ted's going to secede from the U.S. and form his own country. "Texerica". Where he can be 'large and in charge'.:-). You'll see a mass migration of like-minded individuals flock there. A fifty-foot double fence around the whole 'country', and an army to guard it from little kids trying to get in from Honduras. Cheney will be the Secretary of Defense. Huckabee will be Secretary of Religious Thinking. Ted Nugent will be second in command to Cheney. Palin will be Secretary of State because of her vast foreign policy experience.(She's seen Russia). Department of Education will not exist. Instead, Cruz will pass out copies of 'Green Eggs and Ham'. There you have it. Georg Orwell's '1984', Er, I mean, Alex Jone's '2020'(I chose 2020 on purpose, because the 'right' would want something named after their 'clear vision')

Who was the idiot who allowed the infected into this country in the first place? They should be shot on site! Second. If airborne , our leaders are fully responsible and all of then will have to pay! If this becomes an outbreak, I want public hangings for all the congress, senate, any who supported the bringing of doom to America!

@NormalFlora The CDC is a government facility! I have as much faith in them and their abilities like a bloody shit! Do I trust then? NO! There is no chance in Hell I would have brought these people here! I would have treated them there in Africa where the caught the contagion!

Don't be scared that's what they want.Your name makes me think you're on the wrong angle for this story.How about you point out how the wife of the doctor thanked jeebus and god for watching over her husband and being with them through all of this. Because if she is right, then jeebus made sure the rich white guy survived and let a bunch of poor villagers die an horrific agonizing death just to show rich white people in rich countries how much he cares. Try going with that and the inherent hypocrisy instead. Being scared of ebola is what they want you do.

ctc - With that kind of thinking, they'd still be testing aspirin to see if it's safe.

Let's see... The virus mutates, and the patients die. The patients don't get treatment, and they die. Hmmm..... What should we do? It's not a highly communicable disease. unlike one other certainly uninformed 'poster' seems to think it is.